a wonderful twist on the boarding school bildungsroman/mystery. Blue's father is a wandering professor who agrees that for her final year of high school, perhaps they should stay in one town for the entire year. Blue finds herself in the sway of the film teacher, Hannah Schnieder, and the clique of startling misfits she has gathered around her... only to have Hannah mysteriously commit suicide, opening up a whole new perspective on Blue's life. Liberally sprinkled with quotations for authors real and fictional, illustrated by Blue, and deliciously quirky and twisted.
A very pretty webpage for the book...
A few things by Ann Patchett
An attempt to kidnap the president of a poor, unnamed Andean country from a birthday party for a prospective Japanese investor goes awry when the president is not in attendance, home instead with his soap opera. Forced into quick decisions, the rebels/terrorists take the entire party, including the opera star who drew them all there, hostage. Romance blooms across languages and backgrounds as they all tumble into a prolonged period of suspended animation. I had read this before and been disappointed by the ending... still was, to a degree, but less so. Maybe it just required knowing the characters a little better.
and
this time we're in boston, following the lives of an ex-mayor, his run-away biological son and the two brothers he later adopted, and the family they never knew they had. wound through with politics, science, history, and poetry - father had wanted them all to be president and had them memorize important speeches as children - Run is about race and passions and responsibility. it's also a wonderful portrait of boston, which i miss.
Ann Patchett's writing leaves me breathless. occasionally crossing into magical realism, she is poignant and fast paced, and i can never put her books down. She has such an obvious love of the world around her and an amazing eye/ear/touch for sensory and emotional detail...
also, this, which i enjoyed so much more than the movie
various children's books (robin mckinley, harry potter)
and
which i did not like so much, though i pushed through and finished it... her V.I. Warshawski mysteries are fun, but this was just a little too strange, polarized and upsetting... there were no shades of gray in this book, which i always find unsettling. despite taking me to parts of chicago i have yet to explore, i was not terribly fond of it...
now reading
which i'm enjoying tremendously, though i don't know that it will be the best pre-bedtime book....and looking forward to spring break when i can spend much time curled up in my aunt's home/on the plane/in my bed with new ones... recommendations welcome!
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